Williams looked at the vibrant white main sequence star in the distance as its light upstaged the ceiling lights of the bridge and cast new sunlight shadows of all bridge personnel on the floor. The Carl Sagan had been at Sirius for two days with zero progress made toward its primary objective, that had to change, it was going to start that day.
“How soon can we deploy colonization pods if we find a suitable world?” he asked.
Rivera turned away from Chang and looked at the shimmering projection on her holo pad. “I’ll need to double-check the status of the colonization habitat ring, shouldn’t be an issue since most of the battle damage was focused here.”
“Get to it as soon as you can, please,” Williams said. “We need to set up a home and base camp in this system, and then we find the captain and her team.”
“Understood,” Rivera confirmed, and took her leave.
Helm control of the ship was transferred back into the hands of a human. Williams didn’t need to look at Chang’s smiling face to know he was having the time of his life piloting the ship throughout the system at sub light speeds. Williams made his way to the rear section of the bridge to examine the holographic projection of the Sirius A system.
“EVE, any thoughts?” Williams asked.
EVE’s hologram manifested next to the projection. Like a tour guide she began to point to and explain what the ship’s scans had picked up since their arrival. “There are five planets orbiting Sirius A. Two dwarf size worlds, a gas giant followed by two other worlds equal in size and mass to that of Earth.”
As EVE explained, the respective worlds enlarged before him. The dwarf planets mentioned were too close to Sirius. Their atmosphere was burned away by the furious power of the star. The gas giant had good potential for heilum-3 mining and possibly ore mining on its many moons. Given its proximity to the star however, they would have to take extra precautions there. Most likely set up mining platforms that follow the night cycle of the gas giant to reduce the amount of work the shields will have to do to protect its crew from radiation, especially if they have to perform a space walk.
Williams asked EVE to show him data about the two Earth-sized worlds as they both had gravity on par with Earth, something the sleeping colonists aboard would be more than grateful to make their home on as they all came from Earth. One planet labeled SA-115 by EVE was 1 AU away from the star while the other labeled SA-139 was 5 AU away, the goldilocks zone for Sirius A. Not too hot, not too cold, Earth-sized. If the planet had a strong ozone layer thus making solar radiation a non-issue, SA-139 was the best choice for a new home for the crew and an expansion for the UNE’s sphere of influence in the galaxy.
Williams flicked the hologram of SA-139 toward Tolukei. “Is it possible I can get an ESP scan of this world and the nearby sector?” he asked him. Tolukei began to shut his eyes and focus while his psionic mind reached outside of the ship and touched the surface of the planet in question.
“Puzzling,” Tolukei said after ending his trance. “Once again, I sense psionic activity in the system.”
“Location?”
“It is hard to tell exactly where it’s coming from, I will need more time to touch it with my mind. But it is strongest on the fifth planet you are considering.”
Williams looked at the projection of SA-139, the fifth planet in the system and crossed his arms. “Of course it is,” he mumbled. “Chang, set a course to SA-139.”
The young flight lieutenant nodded. “Understood, setting new course, Commander.”
Williams returned to his chair as the Carl Sagan adjusted its course and accelerated to the fifth planet in the system at sub light speeds. “If there is a civilization on that world then that instantly makes this system no good to us.” Though that wasn’t entirely true.
Williams knew that the Carl Sagan was prepared to tame any planet for human colonization, thanks to the technology handed to them by Radiance. Domed cities could be built protected by shields strong enough to protect people from heat and radiation. However, such a task would take more effort than it was worth, not to mention the upkeep as a lot of labor and resources would have to be used to keep those conditions maintained. Ideally, settling on a world with minimal upkeep would be best, as the man power and resources could be used to acquire more resources and then later jump-start a colony on a harsh world.
ESRS CARL SAGAN, Bridge
SA-139 orbit, Sirius A system
May 20, 2050, 18:27 SST (Sol Standard Time)
The image of SA-139 caused much of the bridge crew to don smiles of delight as Chang placed the ship in a stable orbit. It was almost as if they had returned to Earth given the many familiar features of the surface of the planet. Large continents were surrounded by blue oceans, while puffy white clouds hung above. Many of the continents had blotches of green regions such as grass, forests, and the like. Other regions were yellow and brown, especially near the equator, deserts and dry canons and mountains arching toward the skies.
Swirling vortexes of clouds were seen exiting the terminator of night into the white sunlight and battered the coastline of one of the southern continents. EVE reported it to be a hurricane, not that Williams needed to know that, the eye of the storm was big enough to give that fact away. As their orbital path continued they arrived at a side of the planet that was experiencing winter. It resembled Earth when it was going through its ice age as the landmasses and water around it were frozen. According to EVE’s data one year on SA-139 was equal to eight years on Earth, thus meaning winter went on for multiple Earth years. The news made all the botanists aboard excited as it would be a chance to study how plant life evolved and adapted to the climate the planet possessed. True, the Radiance database was filled with knowledge of similar planets, but none of those worlds had been explored by humans. Reading about it, and experiencing it were two different things.
Multiple probes were launched. Some traveled to the surface below, others traveled at sub light speeds en route to the rest of the stellar objects in the system. The probes that arrived on SA-139 began to transmit their findings back to EVE, and she began to catalog and flag areas of interest. The biggest discovery, and partial relief to Williams, was despite the Earthlike appearance and the signs of animal life on the planet, there were no signs of intelligent civilizations. Recon teams consisting of Hammerhead personnel, scientists, and explorers traveled to the surface later via transports and only confirmed what the probes discovered, nobody had made claim to the planet. It was ripe for colonization.
Tolukei’s ESP scans of the system also confirmed no signs of ship activity since their arrival. Apart from the hostile aliens that chased them away from Sirius B, all signs pointed to the Carl Sagan and humanity as the only interstellar species anywhere. The fact the aliens chose not to chase the Carl Sagan, and had no presence in Sirius A that they could detect, fueled their confidence, though Williams had a feeling they hadn’t seen the last of them, they would still need to keep an eye out for them.
“Well I see no reason to not settle here,” Williams said after reviewing data from all probes launched.
“You got my approval if it means anything,” Chang said.
Williams opened up a comm link to engineering. “Rivera, are we green for colonization release?”
“You’re good to go, Commander,” her voice transmitted back.